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The Stray Bullet: William S. Burroughs in Mexico
William S. Burroughs arrived in Mexico City in 1949, having slipped out of New Orleans while awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges that would almost certainly have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. Still uncertain about being a writer, he had left behind a series of failed business ventures—including a scheme to grow marijuana in Texas and sell it in New York—and an already long history of drug use and arrests. He would remain in Mexico for three years, a period that culminated in the defining incident of his Burroughs shot his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, while playing William Tell with a loaded pistol. (He would be tried and convicted of murder in absentia after fleeing Mexico.) First published in 1995 in Mexico, where it received the Malcolm Lowry literary essay award, The Stray Bullet is an imaginative and riveting account of Burroughs’s formative experiences in Mexico, his fascination with Mexico City’s demimonde, his acquaintances and friendships there, and his contradictory attitudes toward the country and its culture. Mexico, Jorge García-Robles makes clear, was the place in which Burroughs embarked on his “fatal vocation as a writer.” Through meticulous research and interviews with those who knew Burroughs and his circle in Mexico City, García-Robles brilliantly portrays a time in Burroughs’s life that has been overshadowed by the tragedy of Joan Vollmer’s death. He re-creates the bohemian Roma neighborhood where Burroughs resided with Joan and their children, the streets of postwar Mexico City that Burroughs explored, and such infamous figures as Lola la Chata, queen of the city’s drug trade. This compelling book also offers a contribution by Burroughs himself—an evocative sketch of his shady Mexican attorney, Bernabé Jurado.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
3 people are currently reading
273 people want to read
About the author
Jorge García-Robles
21 books11 followersEnsayista, nivolista, traductor...
Jorge García-Robles, quien -según Roger Bartra- encara de un modo lúdico los grandes problemas de México fue Premio de ensayo literario Malcolm Lowry 1995... Es autor del libro vivencial "Qué transa con las bandas" (1985-2014), de la mixtura de escritos ensortijados "Lofránida" (1987), de los cuentos alquímicos reunidos en "Los muslos de Potasia" (1992), de un tomo de urdimbres literarias llamado "Utilería" (1995), de un ensayo biográfico sincopado que dedicó a la estancia de William Burroughs en México: "La bala perdida" (1995 y 2008), de otro ensayo biográfico acerca de la espinosa pero creativa permanencia de Jack Kerouac en Méjico: "El disfraz de la inocencia" (2001 y 2008), el monumental "Diccionario de modismos mexicanos" publicado por Porrúa), investigación referida al caló usado en México desde la época virreinal hasta nuestros días, "Antología del vicio. Aventuras y desventuras de la mariguana en México" (2016), "Virus.com Historias remotas de pandemia." (2020), "El Espíritu beat, ensayos sobre Burroughs, Kerouac y otros nómadas del universo" (2021), "Blues para una especie tóxica o porque nunca se va a civilizar el Sapiens" (2021), "The Last Sausage of the Great Designer, short story for smart kids (and adults)" próximamente...
La obra de García-Robles se ha traducido al inglés, holandés y al sueco; él mismo tradujo al castellano "México City Blues, Tristessa y cinco libros más de Kerouac.
Jorge García-Robles, quien -según Roger Bartra- encara de un modo lúdico los grandes problemas de México fue Premio de ensayo literario Malcolm Lowry 1995... Es autor del libro vivencial "Qué transa con las bandas" (1985-2014), de la mixtura de escritos ensortijados "Lofránida" (1987), de los cuentos alquímicos reunidos en "Los muslos de Potasia" (1992), de un tomo de urdimbres literarias llamado "Utilería" (1995), de un ensayo biográfico sincopado que dedicó a la estancia de William Burroughs en México: "La bala perdida" (1995 y 2008), de otro ensayo biográfico acerca de la espinosa pero creativa permanencia de Jack Kerouac en Méjico: "El disfraz de la inocencia" (2001 y 2008), el monumental "Diccionario de modismos mexicanos" publicado por Porrúa), investigación referida al caló usado en México desde la época virreinal hasta nuestros días, "Antología del vicio. Aventuras y desventuras de la mariguana en México" (2016), "Virus.com Historias remotas de pandemia." (2020), "El Espíritu beat, ensayos sobre Burroughs, Kerouac y otros nómadas del universo" (2021), "Blues para una especie tóxica o porque nunca se va a civilizar el Sapiens" (2021), "The Last Sausage of the Great Designer, short story for smart kids (and adults)" próximamente...
La obra de García-Robles se ha traducido al inglés, holandés y al sueco; él mismo tradujo al castellano "México City Blues, Tristessa y cinco libros más de Kerouac.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 19, 2014
It's odd but I never read a bad book on William S. Burroughs. As a writer I think he's great, as a human being, I don't know. He's a fascinating personality that's for sure, but it seems to me that he's a natural nightmare for the National Rifle Association. I can sort of understand someone who is involved with gun culture, but I can't put my head around someone who loves guns even after shooting his wife by mistake. That, would make me give up firearms, but alas, Burroughs kept his interest in firearms for the rest of his life. That part of him I don't like.
"The Stray Bullet" is a fascinating book written by a Mexican journalist Jorge Garcia-Robles that covers Burroughs stay in Mexico. In detail it goes into the shooting of Burroughs' wife Joan and what happened before and after that tragedy. Her death has always been kept at as a distance with respect to Burroughs writings and commentary. Although he said that was the moment that he became a writer, but it struck me that he never came to accept her death by his own foolish behavior. In that sense not a very nice man. Seeing the two photographs of Joan's body in this book is shocking. Because this is the first time I have been confronted with her death in a graphic manner, and it does leaves one with a bad taste for the Burroughs image.
It is also interesting that he had no interest whatsoever in Mexico as a culture, either in its history or popular arts. Him and Joan basically just fed their addictions... and that's basically it. In many ways Burroughs world is a very solitude and protected landscape. He risked danger but always by choice. On the surface he's a total noir type of personality, but his weakness is all over the place. "The Stray Bullet" is a sad book, but its interesting that it is written in the point-of-view of a Mexican who appreciates the art of Burroughs, but also quite frank about a man with a lot of faults.
"The Stray Bullet" is a fascinating book written by a Mexican journalist Jorge Garcia-Robles that covers Burroughs stay in Mexico. In detail it goes into the shooting of Burroughs' wife Joan and what happened before and after that tragedy. Her death has always been kept at as a distance with respect to Burroughs writings and commentary. Although he said that was the moment that he became a writer, but it struck me that he never came to accept her death by his own foolish behavior. In that sense not a very nice man. Seeing the two photographs of Joan's body in this book is shocking. Because this is the first time I have been confronted with her death in a graphic manner, and it does leaves one with a bad taste for the Burroughs image.
It is also interesting that he had no interest whatsoever in Mexico as a culture, either in its history or popular arts. Him and Joan basically just fed their addictions... and that's basically it. In many ways Burroughs world is a very solitude and protected landscape. He risked danger but always by choice. On the surface he's a total noir type of personality, but his weakness is all over the place. "The Stray Bullet" is a sad book, but its interesting that it is written in the point-of-view of a Mexican who appreciates the art of Burroughs, but also quite frank about a man with a lot of faults.
September 1, 2013
Waffling between 2.5 and 3, but a magnificent cover.
I have never read any Burroughs and based on this weird biographical sketch I suspect I never will. Seemingly fueled by any drug he could get, often in a stupor, with little sense of responsibility, I would have crossed the street to avoid walking past him.
Garcia-Robles met Burroughs in 1990 and out of this meeting came the idea to write about Burroughs's stay in Mexico, a period of time Burroughs was reluctant to discuss. His time there resulted in the death of his wife from Burroughs's gun.
It was not the first time he had been related to a violent act. His friend Lucien Carr murdered David Kamerer in 1944 and Carr had enlisted the aid of Burroughs and Jack Kerouac to hide the evidence. As a result he and Kerouac were arrested for the cover-up. Burroughs's father bailed him out but Kerouac's family refused to help so he had to marry into money a few days later (I wish this had been explained more fully, but I suppose it had little to do with the main story.) Supposedly Kerouac's "And the Hippos Boiled in their Tanks" was based on the incident. It was about this time that Burroughs met Joan Vollmer his later wife and future victim of his gun.
It was a bizarre relationship, both indulging in their own predilections and often self-destructive actions. ("She told everyone, for example, how making love to him [he of homosexual tendencies] sometimes gave her foot cramps.") Burroughs was soon also married to illicit substances and shaking down bums on the street to supplement the $200 a month his family sent unwillingly (so why do it?) supporting his heroin habit.
Sentenced by a judge to his family in St. Louis (he hated anything remotely familial) he soon fell in with Kells Elvins and together they bought some land in Texas, departing with numerous grandiose schemes. Joan in the meantime had become destitute, was overdosing on Bennies, and was finally sentenced to Bellevue. When Burroughs was notified, he schemed to get her out and took her off to Texas for five years of intense relationship where he planned to raise marijuana and sell it wholesale. He didn't even think of writing, but found time to impregnate Joan (no foot cramps this time?) They spent their time smoking weed and listening to music. Soon the crop was in and they drove 3000 ( according to the author -- my google maps says more like 2200) miles with the crop stuffed in their vehicle to New York, but they had failed to dry the crop properly so it was unsaleable. Burroughs went back to sticking a needle in his arm. Are you beginning to get a picture, here? In the meantime, Kerouac and Nel Cassady, the "American Dionysus" weave their way in and out of Burroughs and Joan's lives, although little is said about their relationship, especially with regard to writing.
Burroughs finally decided to give writing a try while under the influence. His decision was motivated by a need to make some money, his writing a form "of mumbling."
Garcia-Robles occasionally makes some snide comments: "the apartment on 115th Street lacked just one thing: for his highness Burroughs to move in..." There was little preceding that comment to justify it, regardless of its correctness. On the other hand, none of the characters was particularly likeable so perhaps they are justified. One wonders about the little asides, such as the digression into the life of Lola, the Mexican drug lord. I also was skeptical about the perspective, i.e., how much came from Burroughs in the interviews, and how much the author gleaned about his subject from less subjective sources. Comments like, "Joan wanted to die and Bill served as her escort to the final precipice. Further still, he would be the executor of her fate. What better companion toward the darkness than William S. Burroughs, over whom death loomed every minute of his life, like a swarm of mosquitoes around his head, like a black aura enveloping his body? Death was always breathing down his neck, though he never succumbed in desperation. Bill was a leathery reptile with an incredible ability to plunge to the depths and surface unscathed. Not Joan. Joan was tender. Her intelligence and clarity were not made of the same bullet-proof stuff as Burroughs’s. Joan was more like Kerouac: life seemed too large for them. Neither could face the world, neither could deal squarely with it, so it destroyed them—in different ways, but in the same measure," while intriguing, left me wondering.
Ultimately, this book is more of a curiosity that pulls us along wondering what calamity will befall Burroughs next. All of his own making. The central goal of the book, the shooting of Joan, I will not comment on in fear of raising the ire of the spoiler Nazis.
Full disclosure: I haven't read anything of Burroughs and this book was kindly made available to me by the University of Minnesota Press through NetGalley.
I have never read any Burroughs and based on this weird biographical sketch I suspect I never will. Seemingly fueled by any drug he could get, often in a stupor, with little sense of responsibility, I would have crossed the street to avoid walking past him.
Garcia-Robles met Burroughs in 1990 and out of this meeting came the idea to write about Burroughs's stay in Mexico, a period of time Burroughs was reluctant to discuss. His time there resulted in the death of his wife from Burroughs's gun.
It was not the first time he had been related to a violent act. His friend Lucien Carr murdered David Kamerer in 1944 and Carr had enlisted the aid of Burroughs and Jack Kerouac to hide the evidence. As a result he and Kerouac were arrested for the cover-up. Burroughs's father bailed him out but Kerouac's family refused to help so he had to marry into money a few days later (I wish this had been explained more fully, but I suppose it had little to do with the main story.) Supposedly Kerouac's "And the Hippos Boiled in their Tanks" was based on the incident. It was about this time that Burroughs met Joan Vollmer his later wife and future victim of his gun.
It was a bizarre relationship, both indulging in their own predilections and often self-destructive actions. ("She told everyone, for example, how making love to him [he of homosexual tendencies] sometimes gave her foot cramps.") Burroughs was soon also married to illicit substances and shaking down bums on the street to supplement the $200 a month his family sent unwillingly (so why do it?) supporting his heroin habit.
Sentenced by a judge to his family in St. Louis (he hated anything remotely familial) he soon fell in with Kells Elvins and together they bought some land in Texas, departing with numerous grandiose schemes. Joan in the meantime had become destitute, was overdosing on Bennies, and was finally sentenced to Bellevue. When Burroughs was notified, he schemed to get her out and took her off to Texas for five years of intense relationship where he planned to raise marijuana and sell it wholesale. He didn't even think of writing, but found time to impregnate Joan (no foot cramps this time?) They spent their time smoking weed and listening to music. Soon the crop was in and they drove 3000 ( according to the author -- my google maps says more like 2200) miles with the crop stuffed in their vehicle to New York, but they had failed to dry the crop properly so it was unsaleable. Burroughs went back to sticking a needle in his arm. Are you beginning to get a picture, here? In the meantime, Kerouac and Nel Cassady, the "American Dionysus" weave their way in and out of Burroughs and Joan's lives, although little is said about their relationship, especially with regard to writing.
Burroughs finally decided to give writing a try while under the influence. His decision was motivated by a need to make some money, his writing a form "of mumbling."
Garcia-Robles occasionally makes some snide comments: "the apartment on 115th Street lacked just one thing: for his highness Burroughs to move in..." There was little preceding that comment to justify it, regardless of its correctness. On the other hand, none of the characters was particularly likeable so perhaps they are justified. One wonders about the little asides, such as the digression into the life of Lola, the Mexican drug lord. I also was skeptical about the perspective, i.e., how much came from Burroughs in the interviews, and how much the author gleaned about his subject from less subjective sources. Comments like, "Joan wanted to die and Bill served as her escort to the final precipice. Further still, he would be the executor of her fate. What better companion toward the darkness than William S. Burroughs, over whom death loomed every minute of his life, like a swarm of mosquitoes around his head, like a black aura enveloping his body? Death was always breathing down his neck, though he never succumbed in desperation. Bill was a leathery reptile with an incredible ability to plunge to the depths and surface unscathed. Not Joan. Joan was tender. Her intelligence and clarity were not made of the same bullet-proof stuff as Burroughs’s. Joan was more like Kerouac: life seemed too large for them. Neither could face the world, neither could deal squarely with it, so it destroyed them—in different ways, but in the same measure," while intriguing, left me wondering.
Ultimately, this book is more of a curiosity that pulls us along wondering what calamity will befall Burroughs next. All of his own making. The central goal of the book, the shooting of Joan, I will not comment on in fear of raising the ire of the spoiler Nazis.
Full disclosure: I haven't read anything of Burroughs and this book was kindly made available to me by the University of Minnesota Press through NetGalley.
September 18, 2013
Rating = 3.5 stars
This is grim and gritty stuff, most suitable for those who are familiar with the key figures who represented the Beat Generation. Sex, drugs, corruption, and self-destruction defined life for William Burroughs in Mexico City. And yeah, writing. There was some of that. Very bizarre and highly readable. I finished it in 24 hours.
This is grim and gritty stuff, most suitable for those who are familiar with the key figures who represented the Beat Generation. Sex, drugs, corruption, and self-destruction defined life for William Burroughs in Mexico City. And yeah, writing. There was some of that. Very bizarre and highly readable. I finished it in 24 hours.
August 3, 2016
This was an hors d'oeuvre of a book at only 156 pages and double-spaced so I zipped through it in one day and an evening but has some good information. Being Spanish speaking, Jorge Garcia Robles was able to interview the primary Mexican sources and (since he also speaks English) the American sources as well. He also provides an overview of what was happening in Mexican culture at the time. His insights into the relationship between Burroughs and his wife, Joan Vollmer, are also to the point and interesting. He further gives background on Burroughs' Mexican lawyer and the reigning drug queen, Lola La Chata. The Mexican trip was a turning point in Burroughs' career as a writer and an investigation into the details is well-worth researching and reading to have a better grasp of him both as a person and an artist. Well worth reading and compact and concise. - BH.
August 15, 2013
The Stray Bullet is Jorge Garcia-Robles' contribution to New Journalism, centered around his fascination with Burroughs. The narrative, amateurishly over exuberant at times, especially when describing the more positive elements of Mexican culture, descends into a sterile description of the infamous death of Burroughs' wife Joan Vollmar before chasing Burroughs in and out of Mexico.
Garcia-Robles seems to take malicious pleasure in listing the leading lights of Mexican Art then pointing out Burroughs' disinterest in the cultural scene; he makes these lists several times, so you could say his unabashed admiration of the Beat poet is barbed with perhaps some resentment about this as well.
The Stray Bullet stresses the importance of Mexico in its impact on that old junkie, and as an extension its impact on the world; without Mexico, the man who conjured Naked Lunch wouldn't be. Garcia-Robles is bragging that, despite Burroughs' drug-addled passivity when it came to cultural immersion, Mexico caused that ugly spirit to spring into his cold, reptile consciousness the moment that fatal trigger was pulled. Afterwards, Burroughs would write compulsively, if only to fight away that ugly spirit.
I went though a phase a few years ago where I just blew through the Beat canon, primarily that of Kerouac and Burroughs. While I liked Kerouac's stream of consciousness bubble and pop prose, Burroughs' macabre yet visionary descriptions captivated me. I enjoyed cross referencing the more factual entries of the Beat canon, making my own connections down the path many had trod before me. The Stray Bullet, despite its naively simplistic nature, is a comprehensive and referenced outline of Burroughs' stay in Mexico and is a valuable addition to the library of a Beat junkie.
Garcia-Robles seems to take malicious pleasure in listing the leading lights of Mexican Art then pointing out Burroughs' disinterest in the cultural scene; he makes these lists several times, so you could say his unabashed admiration of the Beat poet is barbed with perhaps some resentment about this as well.
The Stray Bullet stresses the importance of Mexico in its impact on that old junkie, and as an extension its impact on the world; without Mexico, the man who conjured Naked Lunch wouldn't be. Garcia-Robles is bragging that, despite Burroughs' drug-addled passivity when it came to cultural immersion, Mexico caused that ugly spirit to spring into his cold, reptile consciousness the moment that fatal trigger was pulled. Afterwards, Burroughs would write compulsively, if only to fight away that ugly spirit.
I went though a phase a few years ago where I just blew through the Beat canon, primarily that of Kerouac and Burroughs. While I liked Kerouac's stream of consciousness bubble and pop prose, Burroughs' macabre yet visionary descriptions captivated me. I enjoyed cross referencing the more factual entries of the Beat canon, making my own connections down the path many had trod before me. The Stray Bullet, despite its naively simplistic nature, is a comprehensive and referenced outline of Burroughs' stay in Mexico and is a valuable addition to the library of a Beat junkie.
December 7, 2013
This book was a disturbing but fascinating look into William S. Burroughs' life in Mexico during the 40s and 50s. I wish the author of the book hadn't been such a Burroughs fanboy, as at times it seemed he was making excuses for what Burroughs did (he shot his wife, tortured animals, stole money for drugs, and had a strange xenophobic view of the Mexican people, yet wanted to live in Mexico). I don't recommend this book if you're not familiar with Burroughs' works or life outside of Mexico, as you'll be confused at some of the references. I found the book glossed over important events or left other things out entirely (like details about Burroughs' relationships with other writers) so I'm only giving this three stars. I do recommend this book if you ever wondered why Burroughs went to Mexico, or what he did there.
November 21, 2017
I found this (momentous) slice of Burroughs' life in Mexico quite a fascinating read, as I have been a Beat fan for a long time. I also find, however, that my now-aged perspective has caused me to lose patience with some of the more irresponsible aspects of the Beats, and especially their justification of such, which simply sounds like alcoholic/addict nonsense. In this case, Burroughs shot his wife, Joan, playing William Tell. She died. Burroughs and Gysin and Garcia-Robles can talk all they want about "the Ugly Spirit" that possessed Burroughs, or Joan's desire to die (and William was simply the instrument), but it all sounds like so many excuses. And though this event purportedly turned Burroughs into the writer/artist he became, the question remains: does art provide justification for cruel and/or destructive (self or otherwise) acts? Or is it just an excuse?
July 4, 2019
Burroughs’ presence in Mexico in the 50’s is interesting and I am glad this book is brief about it. His wife’s death was not very clear to me. Queer and Junky are the books he wrote in Mexico, from which I have read some parts, they are very boring to me since they are quite sad and lack that surrealist, dark humor Naked Lunch has.
The descriptions of the city in the book are funny and sadly some things are still the same:
“Entrepreneurs (not infre-quently lepers) build fires on street corners and cook up hideous, stinking nameless messes of food that they dispense to passersby.” “... —what an astounding, overpowering, brutish olfactory and visual display of our troglodytish gluttony!”
The descriptions of the city in the book are funny and sadly some things are still the same:
“Entrepreneurs (not infre-quently lepers) build fires on street corners and cook up hideous, stinking nameless messes of food that they dispense to passersby.” “... —what an astounding, overpowering, brutish olfactory and visual display of our troglodytish gluttony!”
January 31, 2023
[Currently on sabbatical from long-form criticism as a I write a novel. Please follow me on Substack for my weekly literature and culture newsletter and (soon) the novel in serial; please follow on Tumblr for occasional squibs, jottings, and polemics. For now, very brief reviews on Goodreads.]
A Mexican writer returns Burroughs's exoticizing gaze. Redolent with culture and laden with stories. Unsure of the judgment that Bill was just fulfilling Joan's death wish—but then, not one of these people was a moralist.
A Mexican writer returns Burroughs's exoticizing gaze. Redolent with culture and laden with stories. Unsure of the judgment that Bill was just fulfilling Joan's death wish—but then, not one of these people was a moralist.
July 5, 2025
Quick and good read. 3.5. A little disjointed and lacks flow, but that may be down to the translation. Didn't have a great deal to add to the other Burroughs/ Mexico material out there but what it does add is very worthwhile.
March 13, 2023
Poorly written and researched. Everything is available online nowadays, so why bother reading a book on it. Especially when it gets so many details wrong.
April 1, 2024
Maybe I shouldn't have picked this up since I outgrew my interest in the Beats a long time ago, but I was curious to learn about Mexico City in that era. The book started out okay, but it got unbearably cringey when García-Robles started writing in a pseudo-Kerouac stream of consciousness and I just had to put it down.
September 4, 2016
I haven’t read any of William S. Burroughs’ works, but his life has been a curiosity. I’ve been considering reading Call Me Burroughs: A Life, but at 715 pages, I thought I’d test drive this first.
This essay length book covers 3 pivotal years in Burroughs' life, the period Burroughs claims, made him a writer. The narrative, translated from the Spanish, is informative, and in some parts, poetic.
It begins in New York with the well-chronicled events of the beat writers and their hustler friends. There are two life events for Burroughs in NYC. One is his introduction to Joan Vollmer staged by Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. The other is, Burroughs, along with Kerouac, hiding murder evidence; they knew the victim and showed no remorse.
The move to Mexico, preceded by a failed attempt at growing marijuana in Texas, was inspired by a need to evade the law/family and have easy access to drugs.
If the whole text doesn't lead up to the climax, the reader's anticipation does. The moment is short. A scant page sets the scene and in the next page Burroughs has shot his wife. It is this event that Burroughs said made him a writer (although he'd been working on a book). Why? Was it the tragedy? The guilt? The ease of his escape? I guess I'll have to read the long book to know. This book speaks only to the murder, his actions following the murder, his legal situation and how he left Mexico. While this event may have literary significance it is shocking and defines him forever.
I don't know how much more there is to know about the Mexico years. The writing is good, but balance is missing. For instance, 3 pages of this short book are on a Lola la Chata, a drug dealer whom Burroughs never met. There is more description of the drugs/alcohol they imbibed and their house guests than of the dynamics of the marriage of the openly homosexual Burroughs and his once sexy wife. The closest the author comes to an analysis of the marriage is "Joan stayed with him because she wanted to die." There is nothing on how the two children were raised; it appears that they fend for themselves.
There are a few photos reproduced from snapshots; two of Joan after the tragedy.
The book fills a niche and it does pique my interest. I'll have to finally read some Burroughs and perhaps the big bio too.
This essay length book covers 3 pivotal years in Burroughs' life, the period Burroughs claims, made him a writer. The narrative, translated from the Spanish, is informative, and in some parts, poetic.
It begins in New York with the well-chronicled events of the beat writers and their hustler friends. There are two life events for Burroughs in NYC. One is his introduction to Joan Vollmer staged by Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. The other is, Burroughs, along with Kerouac, hiding murder evidence; they knew the victim and showed no remorse.
The move to Mexico, preceded by a failed attempt at growing marijuana in Texas, was inspired by a need to evade the law/family and have easy access to drugs.
If the whole text doesn't lead up to the climax, the reader's anticipation does. The moment is short. A scant page sets the scene and in the next page Burroughs has shot his wife. It is this event that Burroughs said made him a writer (although he'd been working on a book). Why? Was it the tragedy? The guilt? The ease of his escape? I guess I'll have to read the long book to know. This book speaks only to the murder, his actions following the murder, his legal situation and how he left Mexico. While this event may have literary significance it is shocking and defines him forever.
I don't know how much more there is to know about the Mexico years. The writing is good, but balance is missing. For instance, 3 pages of this short book are on a Lola la Chata, a drug dealer whom Burroughs never met. There is more description of the drugs/alcohol they imbibed and their house guests than of the dynamics of the marriage of the openly homosexual Burroughs and his once sexy wife. The closest the author comes to an analysis of the marriage is "Joan stayed with him because she wanted to die." There is nothing on how the two children were raised; it appears that they fend for themselves.
There are a few photos reproduced from snapshots; two of Joan after the tragedy.
The book fills a niche and it does pique my interest. I'll have to finally read some Burroughs and perhaps the big bio too.
January 29, 2014
Reads like a series of anecdotes, fascinating and horrifying. I didn't know much about Burroughs going into this book and what I do know now doesn't exactly paint him in a great light, but he is clearly an interesting guy. The book discusses his life in and thoughts about the Roma District in Mexico City, so it is valuable for sense of place. The author, apparently the Beat Culture expert in Mexico, includes all the significant characters at the time, including Lola La Chata, who was a female drug trafficker and seemed to have a monopoly on heroin and morphine in Mexico City, and Bernabé Jurado, Burroughs' seedy lawyer. I thought the parts about Joan and Burroughs relationships were interesting as well as the parts about Burroughs and his unrequited love for a young man... who traded sex for money and travel and just because he was tired of saying no.
It's obviously a sad portrait because these people lived sad lives, but compelling narrative. What I also found of value was hearing how Burroughs became dissatisfied with Mexico just like he had with the U.S. I'm sure he felt the same about wherever he moved next and so on. It goes to show that people who are always in search of something and never content will never be content.
It's obviously a sad portrait because these people lived sad lives, but compelling narrative. What I also found of value was hearing how Burroughs became dissatisfied with Mexico just like he had with the U.S. I'm sure he felt the same about wherever he moved next and so on. It goes to show that people who are always in search of something and never content will never be content.
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December 9, 2010Este libro viene en una edición junto con otro texto sobre Kerouac en México (Burroughs y Kerouac dos forasteros perdidos en México). Me parece muy bueno porque presenta información detallada que no había leído en escritos biográficos sobre los autores. En especial la sección de Burroughs es muy intensa. Y me gusta que cuestiona en algunos momentos los elementos que, según el autor, faltaban en la literatura mexicana, y que estos dos forasteros abordaron en sus escritos "mexicanos".
April 10, 2015
An intriguing and novel perspective on a crucial part of the Burroughs story.
February 5, 2017
This is a critical text for anyone interested in Burrough's time in Mexico. It offers a Mexican perspective, which is interesting. Not for the casual reader.
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